


Nine-tenths of the Law

by dyingpoet



Category: The Outsiders - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Era, Fluff, Humor, M/M, One Shot, Slice of Life, idk what to tag this but curly is Dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24119269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dyingpoet/pseuds/dyingpoet
Summary: Curly and Angela have a system for what to do if Tim walks in when they have somebody over. It doesn't work that well.
Relationships: Ponyboy Curtis/Curly Shepard
Comments: 20
Kudos: 131





	Nine-tenths of the Law

**Author's Note:**

> ive never written from curlys pov before but i rlly love the shepards and wanna try to more in the future so consider this practice :((

“Hey,  _ Tim _ .”

Angela’s voice raised with a lilt on the last word in the same way Curly’s did when Tim came home back when Angela was still dragging that Bryon kid around the house like a ragdoll. They’d never came up with a code that worked any better and didn’t figure they needed it. 

“Shit.” 

Ponyboy was wide eyed and red faced pressed up against Curly’s headboard with the other straddling his thighs. They both froze and stared at each other for a fraction of a second until Tim mumbled back a greeting at Angela and Curly snapped out of it. “Fuck, alright get  _ off  _ for Chrissake.” 

“Where do ya want me to  _ go _ -”

Curly shoved hard at Pony’s shoulder and got him on the ground. He was half listening to Angela stalling Tim with something that happened at school, he’d be paying off that favor for the next year at least, and tried his best at a grin toward the boy on the floor. “I’m real sorry in advance ‘case there’s somethin’ rotten under there.”

Pony curled his lip and squinted under the bed. “Gosh ain’t the closet open or somethin’?”

“Naw it’s closed on Sundays,” Curly snarked and reached down to flick the back of Pony’s head. “Just get under and shut yer trap would ya?”

Two shoes got kicked off and thrown up against a wall from outside Curly’s room and Tim’s footsteps followed. By the time the older boy threw the door open Curly was sitting up against the headboard and if Pony had any more complaints they weren’t getting past the bed springs. 

“Hey, Tim.”

“Curly.” Tim leaned up against the door frame and studied Curly for a second. He and Angela used to joke Tim could stare someone down and get more honesty than the polygraph, and Curly fought to keep from looking away. “What’s up?”

“Not much, you get let off early?” Curly asked. 

Tim nodded and Curly felt his stomach drop a little when he moved into the room and shut the door behind him. It could mean a thousand different things, even if you were just counting the stuff Curly had screwed up that week, but it sure as hell felt like he was on the hunt for something in the room. Lord knew there was a lot to find. 

“Thought you said you was servin’ detention ‘til later, fer busting up some shit in yer science class or something,” Tim said after a beat, and he wasn’t wrong either. 

Curly hadn’t meant to do much more than make some smoke come up out of those little glass bottles they gave them in chemistry, it wasn’t his fault the kid next to him got it all in his eyes. The chemical shower sure was cool though.

Years of having to lie to Tim and just about anybody with age on him came in handy though, and Curly plastered a grin on his face and stretched his arms up over his head with a practiced laziness until a crack sounded somewhere in the middle of his back. “Got cancelled. A whole bunch’a teachers been gettin’ sick, they don’t got no one to watch us.”

“Damn, wish the cooler worked the same way,” Tim replied, sitting down on the edge of Curly’s bed with a squeak that sent Curly’s heart going like a rabbit’s. “Don’t got enough wardens and they just spring a couple of guys, huh?”

“Yeah,” Curly chuckled, voice pitched high. “We got any business ‘round town tonight or somethin’? I thought you was tryin’a play cards with the Curtis boys after work.”

Now he knew that bit was true, it was sort of what they’d been planning on actually. Pony had been telling his brothers and anyone who’d listen that he’d be at the library all evening just so nobody got tripped up when he wasn’t around, and Curly threatened Angela with everything under the sun just in case she even thought about breathing a word to Tim about them. 

“Naw we ain’t got nothin’ going on like that, jus’ stoppin’ by on my way over there to check up on you and Angel.”

Curly knew he oughta nip this conversation in the bed if Pony wasn’t going to suffocate underneath the bed, but he still had his  _ pride _ . “We ain’t five, Tim, we’re fine.”

“You eat yet?”

“No,” Curly bit out after a second and glared when Tim’s face twisted into a smirk. “‘M not hungry.”

“That’s a first.” 

Curly kicked childishly at Tim’s shoulder and groaned when his brother caught it and dragged him forward so his head fell hard against the mattress, sending the whole thing bouncing again and Curly figured he’d have a shiner before Tim even pulled out of the driveway. 

“C’mon, lay off,” Curly whined and grabbed a pillow to swing at Tim’s head. He caught that too and hit Curly a few times before finally letting up and getting off the bed. 

“I picked up some McDonald’s for y’all, it’s on the counter. I’ll be back late.”

Curly threw the pillow at the slamming door instead of answering, and he heard Tim bark out a laugh in the hallway and say something to Angela before the front door shut again. Curly let out a long sigh and pounded on the mattress.

“Coast’s clear, you can come on out now.”

The whole bed frame shook when Pony crawled out from underneath it, coughing up a storm and staggering up off the ground as soon as his head popped out. “Curly Shepard, I swear on your grave-”

“On  _ my  _ grave?” Curly cut him off, already losing the tension that Tim being in the room had brought him the more Pony talked.

“That’s right, on  _ your  _ grave, ‘cause if I ever gotta be under there ever again I’ll dig the whole six feet myself and throw ya in,” Pony snapped. He lost any heat behind the threat when he caught Curly grinning and copied him when he didn’t cut it out. “I’m bein’ serious Curly, you oughta clean under there before you get roaches crawlin’ around while you sleep.”

Curly shivered a little at the thought. “It ain’t that bad, I don’t got food or nothin’ down there do I?”

“No,” Pony drawled, “but ya got enough dirty laundry to close down the laundromat for a day, I don’t know how the hell you don’t smell rank all day wearin’ clothes off the ground.”

Pony ran off at the mouth a little longer and Curly watched him quietly, a smile playing at his lips at the sight of the youngest Curtis getting all riled up. He knew for a fact that Pony’s house was spotless, Darry’d grounded him for not doing his chores more than once and Curly got glares if he so much as came in without taking his shoes off. If Tim was half as bad Curly was sure he’d be out on the street by now.

Pony finally shut his trap once Curly got sick of it and started groaning over the complaints. “God _ damn _ , and I thought Tim was killing the mood.”

Pony caught his look stuttered a little. He could talk anybody to near death if he got his mind to it, and it embarrassed him enough to get him flushing, Curly sitting up and reaching for his arm as he did. 

“That’s more like it, any more complaints for me, huh?”

“A few,” Pony mumbled, allowing Curly to pull him back onto the bed and keep a firm hold on his wrist.

“Yeah? Go ahead then.” 

Curly moved to kiss him and dodged at the last second, landing on his neck instead and grinning when he felt the other’s breath hitch.

“Well first off, yer a slob, obviously.”

Curly hummed and moved down to his collarbone and grazed it lightly with his teeth instead of answering. It worked just as well. 

“And yer-yer-”

“What’s that?” Curly purred, raising both eyebrows and grinning down at the red mark on Pony’s neck that was already forming. He’d have to pop his collars up for a good while. 

Pony blinked rapidly and didn’t say anything until Curly pushed him flat on his back again. “Yer  _ possessive _ , is what I was sayin’.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

He got about halfway through leaving another mark on Pony’s neck with the other’s hands up under his shirt, raking his nails down his back hard enough to leave just as dark of a mark when something crashed against the bedroom door.

Curly just about fell off the bed in surprise, trying to detangle himself from Pony and getting ready to shove him right back under the bed when Angela’s voice started up from the other side of the door.

“Curly!”

He rolled his eyes and sat up with Pony who got shoved right back down when he started snickering. “What?”

Angela started pounding on the door instead of answering and Curly shot up off the bed with his fists balled. “I swear ta god, Angel-”

Angela was smiling, a Cheshire cat smile, when Curly opened the door, and he moved to the side to block her when she tried to look over his shoulder into the bedroom. “Whaddya want?”

“You still got the Curtis kid in there?”

“Why?” Curly snapped. 

He knew Angela wouldn’t rat on him in her right mind, but she had a funny way of telling people things without saying a word sometimes. The aftermath was never pretty.

Angela sighed loudly and crossed both her arms, looking more like their mama than Curly cared to admit. “‘Cause if he ain’t there you’re gonna have to start washing your own sheets ‘cause there’s no way in hell I’m touching ‘em after all that noise you was making-”

Curly shoved her back by the shoulders and she started cackling, head down, with what was left of her curls after they got cut short bouncing and curling around her chin as she did. “Do ya  _ need  _ somethin’ or didja just feel like bein’ a bitch?”

She calmed down enough at the insult to take a breath and lean against the wall across from the door. “I’m goin’ out.”

“When?”

“Now, Syl’s waiting on me outside.”

Curly narrowed his eyes and Angela rolled hers right back. Curly’d never been on good standing with Sylvia, hell even Tim wrote her off once she went on the make for that Johnny kid when Dallas was locked up, but they’d be even after this at least. 

“Fine, just be back ‘fore Tim or else we’re both gettin’ skinned.”

Angela nodded and tried for one more look over Curly’s shoulder on her way out. “Don’t worry, what Timmy don’t know won’t hurt him, you know that.”

She gave a smirk over her shoulder and Curly flipped her off when she slammed the door behind her. He stood in the hallway until he heard Sylvia’s car start up and get going down the street. 

“She gone?”

Curly turned to see Pony stood up, stretching his arms out and messing with the collar on his shirt to try and cover up Curly’s handiwork. 

“Yeah the wicked witch’s dead, for now at least,” Curly quipped, and he watched Pony try and fix his hair in the mirror in vain until he caught Curly’s eye in the mirror and smiled.

“What?”

“Nothin’.” Curly shrugged and walked over, pulling lightly on the belt loop on Pony’s jeans to get him away from the mirror. “We got the whole house to ourselves, ya know. Angel’s off god knows where and Tim’s gonna be robbin’ yer family blind for a good couple hours.”

Pony slapped his hand lightly and Curly grinned wider. “Don’t be too sure, Soda hasn’t taken a loss on a poker game since - glory I don’t even remember.”

“Keep talkin’ about Soda why don’tcha. I mean he’s the Curtis I’m really on the make for after all,” Curly teased when Pony blushed slightly and started messing with his hair again to try and play it off. It was sort of cute on account of he was so lousy at it. 

“You’re real funny, ya know that?”

“I do,” Curly answered easily. “What else didja say I was? Possessive?”

Pony hummed in response and frowned when he caught the look Curly was giving him. “What are ya -  _ hey _ !”

Curly shot forward to get both arms around Pony and swung him a little before tossing him lightly on the bed and flopping down on top of him, sitting up with his elbows on either side of the other’s ribs. “Ain’t that nine-tenths of the law? Something like that?”

“ _ Possessive _ , not possession-”

Curly cut him off before he could get any farther, and didn’t give him much of a chance to tell him the difference between the two, at least not that night. 

**Author's Note:**

> i hope yall liked it!!! never written for tim or angela ever i think and i hope i got their dynamic okay???
> 
> kudos/comments are The Best,, consider dropping one or hmu on tumblr @dying-poet <3 <3


End file.
